BUTLER TWP— Butler boys basketball coach Joe Lewandowski has spent much of this season looking for a fifth starter to fit the mix.

Jace Lumley looked like a good fit Wednesday night.

The seldom-used senior struck for 15 points, including three 3-pointers, as the Golden Tornado defeated Burrell, 55-40, in the first round of the Butler Christmas Tournament.

"Jace can shoot the basketball, and we felt like he may be able to provide us with that extra offense we've been looking for,"Lewandowski said. "We know he can shoot the 3, but tonight he was getting to the hoop as well.

"We had been going with defense to fill that fifth spot in our lineup, but Jace seemed to fit the mix pretty well. Maybe we discovered something tonight."

Burrell (5-6) discovered something as well:It can't beat a zone defense.

The Bucs found themselves even at 22 with the Tornado (5-5) when Burrell's Cole Taylor drove for a layup with 4:15 left in the first half.

Butler scored the final 11 points of the first half and 15 of the first 21 points in the second half, taking a 48-28 lead with 1:06 left in the third quarter.

"They went to a zone and we couldn't do a thing against it,"Burrell coach Mark Ziemianski said. "Our two big guys (6-foot-3 seniors Tyler Reifschneider and John Mazonkey)combined for one point tonight."

Chris Betza led Burrell with 17 points and five rebounds, hitting all eight of his shots from the floor.

But it was the play of point guard Zach Ziemianski, the coach's son, that caused Lewandowski to switch to a zone.

"That kid is an outstanding player,"Lewandowski said. "He's the best point guard we've seen this year. We couldn't stay in front of him. We couldn't guard him. He forced us to play zone."

Ziemianski scored 14 points for the Bucs.

Sean Lowry paced Butler with 17 points and got the late first-half Tornado surge started by scoring on three successive possessions to break the 22-all deadlock. Lowry sank a trey to snap the tie and Butler never trailed again.

"Sean's our best player, he's a senior and he accepts the challenge to make plays in critical situations during games,"Lewandowski said. "He's been doing a lot of that."

Cody Fleeger contributed 12 points for the Tornado and Mike Pratkanis had six of 19 Butler rebounds. Burrell had 19 boards as well.

Penn Hills 66, Summit Academy 54 — The Indians (7-2) won their fifth straight game and will face Butler in the title game tonight. Mo Cox had 19 points and 13 rebounds for the winners, including two slam dunks.Brett Young had 16 points and seven rebounds, Anthony Ionadi 13 points and 10 boards, and had Andre Anthony added 12 points for Penn Hills.Stephen Grandison scored 15 points for Summit Academy (6-4), which had a four-game winning streak snapped. Leonard Brown contributed 13 points and Marc Walker had 12 points and six rebounds.Penn Hills had a 41-35 edge on the boards and used a 10-2 run at the start of the fourth quarter to pull away. The Knights trailed only 43-42 through three quarters.

Notes: Finalists for the 3-point shooting contest are Butler's Lumley and Jereme Buffington, Summit Academy's Walker and Penn Hills' Nick Buban.

SUMMITACADEMY54Stephen Grandison 7-11 1-1 15, Maurice McDaniels 0-6 0-2 0, Marc Walker 5-12 2-2 12, Albert Brinkley 0-3 0-6 0, Leonard Brown 6-14 1-7 13, Rashawn Flemming 4-5 0-0 8, Thomas McMillon 0-0 0-0 0, Lamont Valentine 3-3 0-0 6. Totals: 25-54 4-18 54

PENNHILLS66David Flippino 0-5 6-7 6, Donte Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Anthony Ionadi 3-7 6-7 13, Mo Cox 8-18 3-10 19, Andre Anthony 3-12 4-6 12, Barry Smith 0-2 0-0 0, Brett Young 7-12 2-5 16. Totals: 21-57 21-36 66

Summit Academy 8 14 20 12—54Penn Hills 21 7 15 23—663-point goals: Ionadi, Anthony 2

Thursday: Consolation game-Summit Academy vs. Burrell, 4 p.m.

BURRELL 40Zach Ziemianski 6-9 1-2 14, Steve Yakopec 2-11 0-0 4, Tyler Reifschneider 0-1 1-4 1, Cole Taylor 1-1 0-0 2, Mark Kaczanowicz 0-0 0-0 0, Chris Betza 8-8 0-2 17, Jon Mazonkey 0-1 0-0 0, Seth Napierkowski 0-0 2-3 2, Jordan Pisano 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 17-33 4-11 40

BUTLER55Mike Pratkanis 0-3 3-4 3, Cody Fleeger 3-9 4-4 12, Brian Deangelis 0-0 0-0 0, Sean Lowry 7-10 2-2 17, Chris Klutinoty 0-2 0-0 0, Bill Coleman 0-0 0-0 0, Jace Lumley 5-5 2-3 15, Austin Snodgrass 2-3 0-0 4, Jereme Buffington 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Melder 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Cuffman 1-3 0-0 2, Clark Liebler 0-1 0-0 0, Jeff Slater 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 19-37 11-13 55

Burrell 12 10- 8 10—40Butler 13 20 15 7—553-point goals: Ziemianski, Betza; Fleeger 2, Lowry, Lumley 3

JV: Butler, 46-26 (B-Matt Maloy 14)

Thursday: Championship game-Butler vs. Penn Hills, 7:45 p.m.